chuui

Shamelessness

Tuesday 17 June 2025

I listened to things Trump said during the G7 and before (collected in this video). Trump always likes to say outrageous things, but the clips in this video are really unbelievable. Crucial for his act is his total lack of shame.

Trump’s lack of shame gives his followers permission discard shame also. Just speak your mind. Deport all migrants, regardless of whether they’re useful or not! Put down those elitist liberals and despicable minorities! Restore the white race to its proper place at the top of the hierarchy! More generally the shamelessness allows his true followers to express their hatred for everybody that is not like them. (The voters that just thought he could fix the economy are something different.)

But note that Trump’s only real skills are his shamelessness and his ability to entertain; beyond that, he’s essentially unfit.

The commentators in the video questioned if Trump could be a Russian asset. The only reason to doubt that was that he lacks a handler that controls him. However, despite this, Trump tries his best to please Rusland as much as he can.

An explanation might be the nature of Trump’s phone calls to Putin, which he talks about a lot. Some of the things Trump says come directly from Putin’s mouth. Like: isn’t it that odd that America is friends with Germany and Japan, who were the “bad guys” in WWII, while it was Russia that defeated them at great cost? Trump’s total lack of historical awareness is bewildering.

As so often, the commentators desperately try to understand Trump’s logic. He’s usually transactional, but, he sees dictators as his friends, and of course, liberals at home as enemies... And so on.

The point is that Trump’s only talents are his lack of shame and his ability to entertain. These qualities enchant his true followers. But it’s a coincidence that he became their candidate. People were on the lookout for someone who would give them permission to openly express their hate towards minorities, foreigners, and liberals. And there was Trump.

This is also what Pim Fortuyn was. He wasn’t a good politician, but he said out loud what others wouldn’t. Wilders does the same, but he can’t actually govern. He demands what he wants like a child and can’t make necessary compromises.

Trump, Fortuyn, and Wilders share this: they enable their supporters’ desire to express their hate and their demand for simple solutions to complex issues. They give people permission to act like spoiled children.

The crucial point is that Trump, Fortuyn, and Wilders aren’t successful due to political skill but because they feel no shame. Even Wilders, with his rants and unreasonable demands, alienates many, proving he’s not truly politically competent.

That’s why commentators fear a successor to Trump who has both his qualities and actual competence—someone like Orban or Putin.

Trump Bashes Allies, Defends Putin at G7 Summit,
The Bulwark [1.32M subscribers]
＜https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6_67HMIO9I＞

Mallen Baker showed me something interesting

Sunday 15 June 2025

Baker explains that a powerful tactic used by populists follows this pattern: polarize, demonize, dramatize. The last step, as I understand it, involves telling a compelling story that reinforces the earlier strategies of polarization and demonization.

Take for example the story about “migrants eating your pets.” Even after the original report was debunked, the narrative remained gripping. It began with a claim that bones found in the trash belonged to a missing pet. That turned out to be false. Subsequently, the neighbor that had said her cat had been taken and eaten by migrants found her cat locked in her own basement.

Yet facts didn’t matter. The story was so emotionally charged that even the woman who found her cat still clung to the narrative. She claimed that the Haitians probably caught the cat but secretly returned it.

The point is: this cycle of polarization, demonization, and dramatization has very little to do with reality. Political opponents aren’t evil monsters—at worst, they’re ordinary people with different views. In fact, most people still agree on many fundamental values and major policy issues. It’s just that wedge issues get repeated over and over, framed as though they’re the only things that matter.

Here’s where Baker makes a crucial observation. At the same time that Trump is pushing his hardline deportation policy, he is quietly backing away from it behind the scenes. The narrative says migrants are dangerous, a threat to society. But the reality? The vast majority of migrants are hardworking people who fill essential roles.

Even Trump had to admit this. In his own words:

“Our great farmers and people in the hotel and leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.”

Soon after, a leaked document revealed a policy change:

“Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants, and operating hotels.”

Reality exposed the anti-immigrant narrative as fiction—at least in this case. Sometimes, reality still manages to place limits on the story. But of course, that part never gets shared with the political base. They only see the tattooed gang members being dragged away by ICE.

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